Longer videos lead to higher engagement, according to a new study by Wochit. Videos longer than 90 seconds garner 79 percent more shares and 75 percent more views than other video lengths. Despite this marked difference in performance, 80 percent of videos posted on social media are shorter than 90 seconds. The number of long-form videos posted increased by 24 percent over Q1 this year.
Both Instagram Stories and WhatsApp Status have reached 300 million daily viewers, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced. By comparison, the full Snapchat app, temporary public posts notwithstanding, only has 173 million daily users.
Facebook has also registered massively increased ad revenues this quarter, per information released by the company. Facebook’s advertising income hit $10.1 billion in Q3, 88 percent of which came from mobile. Daily active users have increased by 16 percent over the same time last year, reaching 1.37 billion on average in September.
A new report by the Video Advertising Bureau indicates that in spite of the rise of cord-cutting millennials, television still holds the lion’s share of content consumption. Younger Americans spend an average of 5,400 minutes per month watching TV, compared to just 1,163 monthly minutes on YouTube, the closest other platform.
EMarketer has forecasted a dramatic increase in programmatic ad spending in the next two years, claiming that 84 percent of all digital advertising will be transacted programmatically by 2019. Currently, 78 percent of digital ad spending is programmatic, accounting for $32.56 billion spent in marketplaces.
Facebook beats out all other social media networks in last-click commerce, according to a study by Open Influence. Of the polled social media users, 48 percent reported buying an item off of Facebook. The second-largest group was those who had never purchased anything through social media at 35 percent. Only 9 percent had purchased something from Instagram, 5 percent from YouTube, 2 percent from Pinterest and less than one percent from Snapchat.
Microsoft’s Game Pass program showed healthy growth this quarter, contributing to a one percent overall growth in revenue for the company’s gaming division. According to the company’s quarterly earnings report, the service’s revenue grew by 21 percent. Additionally, monthly active users for Xbox Live rose 13 percent, totaling 53 million.
Sony Corporation also released its latest financial results, pointing to the PlayStation driving much of the company’s growth. Sony’s operating income has increased by 364 percent this year, hitting $1.8 billion. In Q2 of 2017 alone, Sony shipped 4.2 million PS4s, bringing the total to 67.5 million.
Consumers are beginning their holiday shopping earlier in the year, according to a report by Brand Keys. Of the 11,625 people surveyed, 51 percent reported intent to shop for gifts before Black Friday, up from 41 percent last year.
Additionally, only 20 percent reported that they’ll shop on Black Friday itself, down by five percent from last year.
“Marketers have taught, and consumers have learned, that deals abound year-round,” said Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys. “This has resulted in earlier shopping and the knowledge that deals are likely to only get better as Christmas approaches.”
Dark social—private messages between users—accounts for vastly more shared holiday shopping content than conventional social media, according to a study by RadiumOne. Seventy-two percent of respondents shared Christmas-related content on dark social platforms, compared to just 22 percent publicly on Facebook.
Global ad revenue is set to hit $1.225 trillion this year, research by PQ Media indicates. With last year’s presidential election and Summer Olympics having been long gone, the industry is set to grow by 3.9 percent in 2017. This rate is substantially lower than 2016’s figure of 4.9 percent.
According to PQ Media’s data, this growth is due mainly to mobile channels.
User spending on the Apple app store is increasing dramatically, per a new report by Sensor Tower. On average, individuals will spend $88 per year on apps in 2019, an 86 percent increase over 2016. Game purchases make up 70 percent of that figure, but streaming services are set to become the second largest contributor to app-store spending.
AppLift has released a new report on video advertising in mobile games, breaking down click-through rates (CTR) by genre. The adventure genre features the most enticing ads, with CTRs of 16.15 percent across all regions. First runner-up was simulation with 13.52 percent, and last place fell to puzzle games, with only a 4.41 percent CTR.
(Editor’s Note: This post will be updated daily until Friday, November 3.)
